Stan Drayton proves the Peter Principle

K.C. Keeler representing Temple at the Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl parade.

Hate to say I told you so but I told you so about Stan Drayton.

His hiring as Penn State running backs coach proves what we said in this space in December of 2021. He was a career running backs coach and that’s where his level of competence rested.

Helluva nice guy, heart in the right place and his wife did the best Electric Slide we’ve ever seen at a Cherry and White tailgate but not cut out to be a head coach in either the pre- or current NIL and transfer portal environment.

Temple paid a hefty price by hiring him and I’m not talking about $2.5 million a year. I’m talking about all the pain on the faces of those great Owl fans after suffering three-straight needless 3-9 seasons on the backs of a prior 3-9 season and the 1-6 season before that.

Much more worried about the impact on the Temple fan base than the $8 million Temple gave Drayton for doing basically what a guy like Ed Foley could have done.

That’s OK because it proves The Peter Principle and if Temple learns anything from that, it will be a valuable lesson.

Our post on Dec. 3, 2021 which was 18 days before Stan Drayton was hired. If the Temple brass followed our advice, Temple could have saved the pain of $8 million and 27 subsequent losses.

That Principle says “you rise to your level of incompetence” and that’s exactly what happened with Drayton. He rose to the level of head coach. That’s incompetence. He’s competent as a running backs coach and Penn State should benefit from that.

Already Temple has benefitted from this loveless divorce.

New head coach K.C. Keeler hasn’t immersed himself into the Temple community, it feels like he’s been here forever.

Keeler repped Temple with an Owls’ ski cap at Friday’s Super Bowl parade. Temple as an institution stepped up with a huge banner congratulating the Eagles in the middle of the parade.

Say what you will about Philadelphia Eagles’ fans but Temple needs to woo the “Joe Philly Football Fan” who has been priced out of Eagles’ games. The “average” price a single ticket at the NFC championship game was $1,300. The average price of a ticket at a Temple football game is $10.

Temple showed up in force to congratulate the Eagles.

Nobody is going to pay 10 cents to watch 3-9 but it is realistic to expect a significant number of Philadelphia football fans priced out of the Eagles will watch a 9-3 Temple team every season and have a fun experience, including the tailgating.

National championship is not the goal nor should it be. A bowl right away should be followed by a bunch of 9-3 seasons.

Stan Drayton had an abundance of “want to” but Temple needs the “how to” factor that Keeler brings to the table. If Keeler ever leaves Temple (and we don’t want that to happen), it will not be for a RB coaching job at a Big 10 or an SEC school. He’s already risen to his level of competence and it’s about three levels above running backs coach.

The Peter Principle strikes again.

Friday: Checking The Film

2 thoughts on “Stan Drayton proves the Peter Principle

  1. So, is Stan Drayton now ‘double dipping ‘ ?. Does he get paid by both Temple for his 2 years remaining AND Penn State ? If so, now that’s another great deal, isn’t it ? I will not bet on Stan being a great addition to PSU either…

    • Fairly standard clause in contracts is that the pay of a new contract offsets the old contract. In other words, if PSU is paying Stan $2 million, Temple is only on the hook for 500K.

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